Fan Fiction » Mini series » Currently… #2
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Currently… #2
Post by Marisol Morales on Jan 14, 2007, 10:13am
The ending is far too hasty, don't you agree? I think I tried to hurry with getting it out too much…
Currently… #2
Continuous Current
Guest starring the ONE villain you NEVER expected!
Cover description: A stormy ocean at night. Black clouds cover the sky and waves reach high. A single lightning bolt connects the sea and clouds.
Setting: After the confrontation between "Wreck" and Charge.
It was raining. In some places, that was the simple order of the day, but the fact could be considered an oddity when it happens in February and in the middle of a desert. And this was no light drizzle… The surroundings of Henry Pym's lab could only be described as a lake, nothing less. And that wasn't really the worst of it, either. He thought the constant rat-tat-tat of raindrops could drive a man insane, but that was nothing compared to his companion. By all accounts, Almond Quimby was now an ageless being, but he still complained like a grumpy senior citizen.
“The lack of this polymer causes albinism?”
He spent most of his time hanging around Hank's lab, striking up conversations about various things and trying to relieve his boredom. Right now, he was sitting nearby and doing crossword puzzles. Fervently.
“Melanin,” replied Hank without looking up. His attention was firmly on the metallic skeleton on the table before him. It was already beginning to take shape. It was a recognizable as a humanoid figure, with the fitting number of limbs and bones. Currently, Henry was fine-tuning the robot's left hand, which was one of the hardest tasks about the whole construction process. He'd finished the other one the week before.
“Synonym for 'annoy', with three letters?”
Hank chuckled slightly and looked towards Almond.
“Vex?” he suggested lightly, “You know, the human hand is an amazingly complicated machine in itself. Replicating it with relatively crude mechanics isn't an easy task.” He wasn't trying to hassle him, he just wanted to make sure he understood.
“Hmmmmmhm, fascinating,” mumbled Almond absent-mindedly. He put down his paper on the table he was sitting at. It had vaguely hand-shaped burns on it. “I've been feeling kind of strange lately, you know,” he continued, “It's like I had this itch somewhere… very far off, where I can't scratch it. And my head started spinning for some reason the other day. It started only recently…”
Hank scowled slightly and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“Can't help you there, I'm afraid. I'm far from an expert on the… matter, but your condition should be impossible physically, anatomically and logically. It might be a 'normal' side-effect, of perhaps you're simply sensitive to changes in the planet's electrical field. Oh, speaking of which…”
He walked to a nearby drawer and pulled out a few pages of paper. He placed them on the table near Almond.
“I did some research on the thunderstorms. Somehow, your presence actually moves and manipulates moisture in the air, which is then somehow condensed. It's probably related to the high-pressure area you create, but you'd need an actual meteorologist to tell you all the ways in which this doesn't make sense. But I think you might be able to turn it “off” if you really tried.”
Almond picked up the notes, immediately creating new singes. He looked them over quietly.
“I don't possess any sort of atmokinesis, do I?” he asked after a moment.
“Doubt it,” said Hank, “I think at most you'd be able to create a dramatic atmosphere at will, though you are able to control the lightning.”
“I'm fine with that,” said Almond and discarded the papers over his shoulder. Hank's eye twitched slightly.
“So do you think I should go relieve some droughts somewhere? I mean, I could, apparently…”
Hank shook his head. “I know it's tempting, but the results for the planet's ecosystem would be unpredictable. God knows you're messing up Death Valley's flora and fauna with your presence. Thankfully, there isn't much of it, but it still creates a worldwide imbalance.”
Almond reclined in his chair and emitted a buzzing sound that reminded of a sigh.
“That's it, I'm all out of ideas about what to do…”
Hank had stepped back to his workbench, but didn't pick up his tools just yet. Instead, he grabbed a half-empty mug of coffee and took a slow sip. It was only lukewarm…
“Can I ask you something? Why haven't you revealed yourself to the New Mutants or, well, anyone?”
Almond turned his “head” to look at him, but hesitated a while before replying.
“I don't really know… I miss them, but I kind of have the feeling all of us should just move on. I guess I'm just afraid…”
“I wish I could help you somehow…”
“Don't be so negative. You know, when life gives you lemons…” Almond's whole body blinked slightly, as if he was winking. “I'll go fly around a bit, maybe work on the whole turning-off thing. Seeya.”
He was gone in a sudden flash before Hank could say anything. He wasn't sure if Almond really meant it, or if he was just masking his bitterness. He'd gotten a pretty relaxed, happy-go-lucky vibe from him for most of their acquaintance, but he really did seem a bit off recently… He went back to work with a sigh after a few seconds of thought.
~*~
Ah, the joys of teleportation. Dr. Pym had told Almond he could instantly move over “terrestrial distances”, which basically meant he could go anywhere in the world if he wanted to. If he wanted to, he could also move at “super-luminal speeds”. The tricky part was figuring out where to go…
At the moment, he wasn't even very sure where he was. He supposed he was flying somewhere above the southern Pacific Ocean, maybe about half-way between New Zealand and South-America. His knowledge of geography was good, but it really was hard to tell when you just appeared there in the blink of an eye.
He was hovering several hundred yards over the water in a horizontal position, and moving relatively slowly. He was trying to outrun the clouds…
The whole thing really felt strange. He knew he was watching the dark sky and the stars, but he could also see the waves beneath him. It should have been confusing, but – somehow – he could tell exactly which way what was, and everything else. But he was concentrating on the stars…
He had to admit, he was curious about them. He knew as much as anyone about alien races and celestial super-beings… The Kree and the Skrull, the Shi'ar, Galactus… He wondered what they were like. He'd honestly had the idea that he could actually go visit them now, if he wanted to. Even the speed of light was slow at distances like these, but he had all the time in the universe, pretty much. But it was also dangerous… In space, there were beings too powerful for him. Energy manipulators that could dissolve him. All things considered, he wasn't nearly unbeatable. He had to work more with himself…
He turned his gaze on the water. Now, he realized, he could also explore the depths of his sea, if he wanted to. Water didn't seem to have an ill effect on him, so there was nothing to stop him from going deeper than anyone before him… Ah, but of course, that would have a decidedly fatal effect on the sea life in a large area… Oh, well.
He decided that it was time. He began concentrating. It really wasn't the easiest thing in the world, considering he had no idea what he was trying to achieve. It was like flexing a muscle that was invisible, and weighed several tons. He just wanted the ill effects of his presence to stop…
He really had the impression that something was happening, when something happened. He stopped dead in his tracks, although he was pretty damn sure he was trying to do nothing of the sort. He was surprised to find himself emitting a flash of light, which – for a moment - covered a huge area. Then he suddenly blacked out.
He came to a moment later. He was still hovering in the air loosely, but the skies had turned black. For a moment, he thought the thunderstorm had caught up with him, but this seemed unlike any normal kind of clouds he had ever seen. They were literally pitch black, and covered every single inch of the night sky. HE was the only source of light as far as his vision ranged. He didn't know if it was just an illusion, but even the ocean seemed black. He tried to tell himself that it was just the absence of light, but it actually seemed to have changed colors…
He was staring around himself, unsure of what to do, thinking if he should try flying away… Then he heard something. It started as mere whispers, but got progressively louder. It seemed to come from directly underneath him… As if millions of voices were chanting from the sea. Over time, it got so loud that it almost hurt. At the same time, he got the impression he wasn't hearing anything at all…
The waves broke. It was abrupt, but seemed to happen in slow motion. Almond realized that his mind was screaming at him, but he couldn't make out what it was saying.
A huge, clawed hand seemed to be reaching from the water. It looked horrible, and it seemed like the waves were actually trying to get away from it… No matter how much he tried, Almond couldn't even tell what color it was. Before he knew it, something else followed. It seemed to be the tips of gigantic, folded wings. They were leathery and closed, but slowly seemed to be opening. Almond felt as if he was hypnotized by that was happening…
Then, at some point, the creature's whole torso was out. There were tentacles… many tentacles. It's head seemed to be composed exclusively of them, but two black eyes still managed to shine through the darkness. It reminded him of a freakish combination of a dragon, an octopus and a human, but a million times worse. And it was big. Almond was like a tiny firefly compared to it. And still, he could do nothing except stare… It was hard to think.
Then, the slithery creature began moving… It raised one of it's clawed arms and flung it towards Almond. Again, it seemed to move so very slowly, yet it caught him completely by surprise… He was finally caught out of his reverie when the huge appendage collided with him and flung him away. It was a moment's contact, but it made him feel as if he was breaking up. The impact was nothing, he came to a halt a dozen feet above sea level about half a mile away. His surprise was ever greater that it simply didn't pass through him.
The beast began moving towards him, and he felt afraid.
Somehow, he realized that this was no ordinary opponent – no usual being. Something told him not to hold back. He began gathering energies. There was no thunder in the sky for him to tap to, so he did it all himself. The air around him turned alive with constantly swirling blue energy, driving back the darkness. The electricity looked magnificent… Normally, he would have been excited by it, but right now, he only felt worry.
The creature was about him once again. It raised it's palm towards him, and he let loose a blast stronger than ever before. Stronger than he would have thought possible… It could have vaporized an army of Sentinels, but it only singed the beast before him. Very slowly, it burned through through his palm.
The monster let loose a gruesome-sounding hiss. It seemed to be in pain, but also very, very confused. After several moments of flailing around wildly it turned around and began disappearing under the water. Only once it was finally gone, Almond began feeling better. If he had a body, he would have been breathing and sweating heavily, but at the moment, spontaneous flicking had to do.
The sky and sea seemed to be returning back to normal. The chanting had stopped… He felt amazingly weak, and any feelings of joy in him were pushed back.
He teleported back to Dr. Pym's lab.
Re: Currently… #2
Post by Marisol Morales on Jan 14, 2007, 5:48pm
Come on, people… the long-awaited, long-delayed second issue and you have nothing to say?
Re: Currently… #2
Post by Armando "Army" Rosewell on Jan 14, 2007, 6:23pm
It just now occured to me that the monster is supposed to Cth…Cuthu…that Lovecraft monster. <_< Now that I think about it, I do recall you saying something about him fighting Current at some point. It's kind of odd that they'd just run into each other, but then, maybe it's not…we'll see. Glad to see you're sticking with this.
Re: Currently… #2
Post by Marisol Morales on Jan 14, 2007, 6:45pm
He was trying to manipulate his electric field and all that… Indeed, he happened to be flying over R'lyeh, and the energy awoke Cthulhu.
Re: Currently… #2
Post by Dillon Drummond on Jan 15, 2007, 2:15am
The end battle with the Cthullhu really confused me. At first I thought it might be Cthullhu but then I figured that made no sense so it had to be Shuma Gorath…then that sorta made no sense.
It was a good issue, and I would've really liked to have seen go down that whole path of Current taking off an exploring the stars.
